


lazy bones, never worked so hard

by MistyDragon



Series: Klaus and Dave [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dave Is Alive, M/M, Vietnam War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:21:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23172340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistyDragon/pseuds/MistyDragon
Summary: Dave doesn't die. It changes things. Instead of transporting himself forward in time again, Klaus stays. Five teleports the other siblings back in time, aiming for 2002, when they were thirteen, but they end up in the unfamiliar jungles of - the Vietnam War?A fic where Klaus stays, the rest of the Umbrella Academy goes back to the Vietnam War, and everyone is surprised at how capable Klaus is and that he actually formed a relationship with someone.The title is from Jeremy Messersmith's song 'Lazy Bones'
Relationships: Dave/Klaus Hargreeves
Series: Klaus and Dave [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1665763
Comments: 5
Kudos: 147





	lazy bones, never worked so hard

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fic I've ever posted, so please be kind with comments and give constructive feedback. Thank you. :)

“Hold on! It’s gonna get bumpy!” Five yelled.

“Where’s Klaus? We can’t leave him!” Allison shouted over the din.

“I don’t know,” Five replied, “but there’s nothing we can do now! I’m trying to get us to 2002, he’ll be there, just won’t have his memories!”

The field of blue light lowered over them, hopefully transporting them back to 2002, when they were 13. But Five’s thoughts had shifted from equations and repeating 2002 over and over again to Klaus. He noticed a branch in the time stream; small, but his attention had shifted enough that they diverted. He had a sneaking suspicion they might not be 13 when they landed, might not be in 2002 at all.

Allison staggered as they arrived in unfamiliar territory - was this a jungle? She didn’t remember being in a jungle when she was 13. But her throat had healed, so, maybe Five had just jumped them too far. Or too little? Maybe one of the others had been in a jungle before… The sound of planes above her jolted her out of her reverie.

“Where are we?” she asked Luther, “or better yet, when?”

“I don’t know,” he replied, looking shaken as he glanced around, still holding Vanya. “And Five’s unconscious, which means we can’t ask him for answers just yet.”

“Either of you in a jungle in 2002? That’s when Five said he was taking us,” Diego said, twirling a knife between his fingers. 

“I wasn’t,” Allison said, “Luther?”

He shook his head mutely.

“Then when are we, which jungle are we in, and why are there planes flying around?” 

“We can ask Five when he wakes up. Until then, we need food and shelter. Answers can wait a little longer,” Luther told them, ever the leader. 

They turned to where Five was lying and paused.

“He looks older,” Diego said in a shocked tone, “Our age.”

“Speaking of, how old did we end up in this time?” Allison asked, glancing around, “27? 28?”

“28 looks about right,” Luther replied, “Diego, you take Vanya, she’s lighter than Five.” He handed Vanya off and picked up Five. 

“Where do we go from here?” Luther asked. 

“Let’s see if we can find anybody. Or a hint as to why Five brought us here,” Allison replied.

They walked a little ways in a random direction before Fived groaned a bit in Luther’s arms.

“Where are we?” he asked, moving around a little before subsiding. 

“We were hoping to ask you that,” Diego responded, “All we’ve come up with is that we’re in a jungle and there’s a war on.”

Five listened to the sounds of planes around them. They waited for an answer, but none came. 

“Any ideas why we’re here?” Allison asked, “We’re all in our, what, 28 year old bodies, but none of us were anywhere near here at 28, unless Vanya’s hiding something.”

“Ugh,” Five groaned,” I have no idea. I got distracted by Klaus in the middle of the portal or whatever, and there was a branch in the time stream that really shouldn’t have been there, but I didn’t think we’d diverted down that path.” He listened to his surroundings a while longer and then added, “Unless Klaus time-travelled to the Vietnam War, I have no idea what’s going on. My equations must have been off… Let me down, I need to figure this out, we need to get back to a reasonable time,” he said, hitting at Luther. 

“How do you know we’re in Vietnam?” Diego asked, suspicious.

“Did none of you pay attention to history lessons?” Five asked incredulously, “It’s the most likely option.”

“Uhhh… you paid attention to our history lessons?” Luther said, just as incredulous. 

“Anyway,” Allison cut in, “we need to find a safe spot until Five and Vanya recover, and Five can jump us out.”

“Alright then,” Luther said, “Let’s keep going. We’ll need food and shelter before nightfall, which is only a few hours away.”

Ben didn’t know what to do. Klaus had never come back after he had opened the briefcase. He had eventually decided that he might as well drift around after the others. He watched as Luther locked Vanya in the room, as his siblings tried to stop Luther. As Vanya broke out and pulled the house down. As they realised that Mom hadn’t made it out. As they frantically searched for Vanya, as Allison went into the Icarus Theater after they tried to put her on lookout. He wished he could help fight, but he could do nothing. He watched as they somehow managed to overcome their attackers, and as Five told them that he could take them back. 

He was glad Allison remembered about Klaus, and mad that they hadn’t thought about him before then. He stood with the others as Five transported them back, holding onto Diego’s shoulder. After they landed and he assured himself that all of them were okay, he paid spotty attention to the conversation between Luther, Allison, and Diego. He was more focused on the sudden pull - similar to Klaus’ powers, but that couldn’t be right. He waited until they set off once more before investigating the pull, wading his way through the ghosts towards the Klaus-like feeling.

The closer he got, the stronger they felt, and he hoped that it was Klaus, despite what that would mean. Was it the briefcase that took him here? That flash of blue, was it time travel? He broke through the tree line and found a camp, soldiers both dead and alive everywhere. He followed the pull of hopefully-Klaus’ powers to one of the tents, bracing himself before phasing through the heavy fabric. Inside were three soldiers, two sitting close and one off to the side, and several ghosts scattered about. He didn’t recognize any of them until one of the soldiers sitting together laughed a too-familiar laugh. He drifted closer. “Klaus?”

Klaus was having a pretty good day, for a day in the middle of a war zone. 11 months in, he and Dave were a couple, and neither of them had died. They had tentative plans for the future, of a house and a dog, maybe some adoptive kids. He felt kind of guilty that he didn’t plan to go back, that he wouldn’t ever see Ben again. But for now, all he wanted was for Johnson to leave the tent and give him and Dave some peace. As much peace as one can have when you’re constantly on alert for the next battle and all the ghosts around you are staring. 

He laughed at Dave’s joke, far funnier than anything for those few moments. And then he heard a voice he had never expected to hear again, one he hadn’t heard in months. “Klaus?”

He looked up, laugh trailing off. “Ben?” he mouths, looking at the brother he hadn’t seen in so long. “How-” he cut himself off as Dave looks at him oddly, mouthing “Later,” to his dead brother. 

“Are you alright?” Dave asked, worried. 

“I’m fine,” Klaus replied quietly, “Just a little tired, and, well,” he gestures at the ghosts around him, “you know.”

“Maybe you should try and get some sleep, Spook,” Dave said to him, “it’s getting toward evening, and no one would begrudge you a little nap before dinner. I’ll go have a smoke or something.”

“I might just do that,” Klaus sighed, “Thanks.”

“Alright then,” Dave said, standing up with a smile, “Get some rest.” He left and pulled a protesting Johnson with him. 

Klaus fell back on the cot, staring up at the ceiling of the tent. “Whaddya want, Ben? How are you here?”

“Well, first I’d like to know where and when we are. Five transported all of us back in time, aiming for 2002. You never came back after the briefcase, and they just continued on without you. Vanya caused the apocalypse, they time travelled back to try and stop it, and apparently Five’s equations were off. That might have been my fault, actually,” Ben says sheepishly, “He didn’t know I was there. Anyway, Allison, Luther, Diego, Five, and Vanya are wandering around your jungle out there with no idea what’s going on. They were heading this way last time I saw them though, so they’ll probably end up here.”

“What the hell?” Klaus said, rising up on his elbows, “Why - you know what, nevermind.” He flopped back on the cot. “This is January 1969, in the middle of the Vietnam War. More specifically, the A Shau Valley. I arrived in February of 68.”

“Why didn’t you come back, then, Klaus?” Ben asked softly.

“Because I fell in love,” Klaus responded. “Because Dave is the best person ever, and he makes me feel- Anyway, you don’t want to listen to me gush about my boyfriend. What’s up with you?”

“Nothing much. Would you come tell our siblings all of this information before they get shot?” Ben asked, eyebrow raised.

“But Ben,” Klaus protested, “this bed is so very comfortable.”

Ben merely gave him a Look. It was one of his greatest accomplishments as a ghost, the perfecting of his Looks. This one was Look #3, the ‘Seriously?’ look. It got a lot of use. 

“Fine, fine,” Klaus grumbled, “Where are they?”

He rolled off of the cot just as Johnson burst back into the tent. “Hargreeves, come on, group of 5 people just wandered into the camp, one of ’em’s unconscious and everyone’s going. You coming?”

Klaus exchanged a quick look with Ben. “Yeah, let’s go,” he said, and walked forward. They ran once they got out of the tent, towards the commotion. Ben followed along, muttering to himself about his idiot siblings. 

Sarge arrived just as they did, yelling “What is going on here?” 

Klaus’ siblings were standing in the middle of a circle of soldiers with guns pointing directly at them, more coming in and crowding around. Klaus cut through the mass of people to the second ring, leaving Johnson behind. 

“We just want to get some help for our friends here and then we’ll be gone,” Luther said, evidently making a decision to keep their true identities from Sarge. Klaus moved towards the group, yelling “Sarge!” across the circle to him. He ran closer, ignoring the looks on the faces of the soldiers surrounding him and of his siblings. “Sarge,” he whispered, “remember what I told you when I first got here? Might be time for another meeting like that one.” 

Sarge looked at him a moment, then nodded. “Alright, you and you, and… you! Take them to my tent. The rest of you go back to whatever you were doing before!” he  
shouted. 

The group followed the soldiers silently. Klaus walked with Sarge back to the tent, having a silent conversation with Ben on the way there. Sarge dismissed the soldiers standing at attention with, nodding the rest of them into the tent.

“Why is coming in with us?” Diego asked, “You dismissed the rest of them.”

Klaus glanced at Sarge and saw a nod. He looked back at Diego. “You don’t recognize your own brother, Diego?” He held up his right hand, the ‘Hello” tattoo obvious on his palm. “Shameful.” 

Diego staggered back, almost dropping Vanya. “Klaus?” he asked.

“Yep, that’s me! Deja vu, anyone?” he said sarcastically to Ben. 

“Mmm,” Ben responded over Luther’s stammered “How?”

Klaus looked around. Allison wore an expression of shock. She hadn’t moved since Klaus put his palm up. Luther wore a similar expression, though Five didn’t appear too surprised. Diego was almost in tears. “Your reactions,” he giggled to himself and to Ben, “are hilarious. Anyway,” he said, more seriously, “I’ve already told Sarge about how I got here, so don’t worry about that. So, you wanna know how I got here? Fine. Psychos shot up the house, I got kidnapped, tortured, nobody noticed, I escaped, grabbed the briefcase hidden in the air vent I got out through, opened it looking for something to pawn, got transported back in time to February of 1968, now it’s January of 69, by the way, and I’ve been fighting in the war since. Fun, yeah?” he said, a fake expression of happiness on his face.

“No it’s not, Klaus-” Allison was almost in tears. “Why didn’t you come back?”

“Oh, you know,” Klaus said airily, “Patriotism, fighting for my country, wasn’t sure if back home would be any better, all that jazz.”

“That’s not important,” Five said harshly from Luther’s arms, “Do you still have the brief-”

“You’re right that’s not important,” Sarge interrupted, “What’s important is whether or not I have to worry about you hurting any of my soldiers, including Hargreeves, on top of the war.”

“No, sir,” Luther responded for all of them, looking a little surprised at his defence of Klaus. “We just need a place to sleep while our brother and sister recover.” 

“Yeah, I figured you were lying about the ‘help for our friends’ thing,” Sarge replied, “You can stay for now.”

“A couple of ours just died, they can stay in our tent if we double up,” said Klaus, surprising himself. “I can keep an eye on them.” 

Sarge nodded approval. “Glad that’s sorted then, now get out of my tent."

Klaus told them to follow him and ducked out of the tent into the rest of the tent. He didn’t look back to see if they followed or not. 

Diego wasn’t sure what to make of this. First they find themselves in the middle of the Vietnam War, and then they find Klaus in the middle as he stops soldiers from shooting at them. He explained how he got here, then escaped as quickly as he could. They glanced at each other before following him one by one.

He could see Klaus a little ways ahead, talking with another soldier. He could see Klaus laugh a little, and wondered at how he seemed happier in the middle of a war zone than at home. He resigned himself to waiting a little longer and hurried on, not wanting Klaus to get out of sight and eager to put the dead weight of Vanya’s unconscious body down.

Klaus looked around for Dave, seeing him just a bit ahead and heading in the same direction. He walked next to him quietly for a few moments, before saying, “You remember when I told you about how I time travelled?”

Dave glanced at him. “When you were drunk out of your mind and high on adrenaline?”

Klaus laughed a little. “Yeah, then. Well, my siblings, I told you a little about them, just managed to get themselves stuck here too, and I said they could stay in our tent, on the empty cots, and I don’t know what to do. Other than give up my cot to cuddle with you,” he smirked. 

“Well, nothing you can do about it now, yeah? So you’ll give up your cot and we’ll figure something out.” 

“I guess, but they’re sure to start fighting, and they might try to stop me from going when an alarm goes off, or they’ll try to go themselves, and Five and Vanya are sick and being carried, and they’ll start talking down to me, and-”

“Hey,” Dave interrupted, “calm down. Everything will work out alright. Now, are they following you or do you need to go rescue them from an angry soldier?”  
Klaus craned his neck around. “I can still see them.”

“Good, cause we’re at the tent. Did you tell everybody else about the time travel, or just bits and pieces? Cause if it was bits and pieces, then you’re going to need to do a lot of explaining. Mostly about why there’s a couple of girls in our tent.”

“I’ve let slip a little, but there’s probably going to be a talk tonight.”

They stood outside of the tent while Klaus’ siblings caught up. “Now,” Klaus told them, in a more serious tone than he had ever used with them, “Don’t get into any fights, and don’t get in the way when an alarm goes off.” And with that, he pushed aside the tent flap and they entered. 

“Home, sweet home,” he told them, “we have the best cots in the army and 5 star meals that will make you frown at Mom’s cooking!”

“Really?” Diego asked.

“No,” Klaus said, looking at him. “I was kidding. But!” he gestured, “you can have your pick of that cot, that cot, and my cot, which is that one. Luther can have his own, since he’s big. But the rest of you will have to share. I’ll share with Davey, don’t worry about me.” 

Luther started forward. “I guess I’ll take that one, then,” he said. 

“Wonderful! Next?” Klaus said expectantly, turning towards them. None of them moved. “What are you waiting for, an engraved invitation?” he asked. Dave snorted a laugh, and Klaus grinned at him. 

“I’ll go with Vanya,” Allison volunteered, “Five and Diego can share.” 

“Great,” Klaus said, “Allison and Vanya take that one, Five and Diego get that one.” He and Dave sat down on Dave’s cot and waited for them to take a seat. “Now, I’m sure you all have questions. So, mein bruder, you look like you’ve been sitting on one for a while, care to share with the class?” he asked, pointing at Five.

“Do you still have the briefcase?” Five asked pointedly.

“Of course, brother of mine, it’s under Allison and Vanya’s cot.”

"Then why didn’t you come back? We could have used you during the apocalypse.”

“Well, too bad. I fell in love, we have plans, I’m not going to come stop the apocalypse with you. Though I wouldn’t mind some makeup. But it’s not like I can wear that anyway, so whatever. I’m staying. "


End file.
